The first 45 minutes of
Full Metal Jacket is as good as anything Stanley Kubrick has ever made – which
means it’s as good as just about any film you can name. The problem with the
film is that it is 116 minutes long – and the final 70 minutes of the film is
nowhere near as strong as those first 45 minutes. This isn’t to say that those
final 70 minutes are bad – they aren’t, they are actually quite good. But they
cannot help but pale in comparison to where the film started. Whenever I think
of the film, I think of R. Lee Ermey's Drill Sergeant and Vincent D'Onofrio's
Private Pyle – and little else. Although I’ve seen the film numerous times, the
final 70 minutes always fairly quickly fade from my memory after the film is
over – which is not something I can say about just about any other Kubrick
film. Full Metal Jacket is half masterpiece, and half very good war film. Well,
that’s still better than most films.

The first 45 minutes on
the film take place on Paris Island, where the Marine Corps run their basic
training. The film opens with a montage of the various recruits all getting
identical buzz cuts – and the point of the film becomes clear in those few
moments – the Marines do not want individuals, they want the same person over
and over again. They want killing machines. The film then moves to Ermey's
Drill Sergeant walking around the barracks and berating the new recruits, with
colorful, often hilarious insults. He informs the new recruits that he will
break them down and turn them into Marines, not the bags of shit they currently
are. He gives many of the recruit’s catchy nicknames – Joker for the recruit
(Matthew Modine) who does a John Wayne impression during that opening tirade,
and Gomer Pyle for the recruit (D'Onofrio) who cannot stop himself from smiling
at Ermey's insults. He is overweight, and out of shape, and the Drill Sergeant
sets his sights on him right away – he will be singled out from the most
punishment because he needs the most work.

There is a point about
30 minutes into the movie that represents a turning point for Pyle – after
which, he`ll go from the somewhat sweet, dimwitted man into something far more
disturbing. When he looks at the camera later in this segment, he looks much
like Jack Nicholson in The Shining – and he talks not unlike HAL 9000 from 2001
– cold, methodical and emotionless. The film ends this segment in violence –
showing how the Marine Corps did precisely what they wanted with Pyle – turn
him into a killing machine.

The last 70 minutes
follows Joker, who works for the magazine Stars and Stripes, through the
Vietnam war. He is told by his superior that they are interested in only two
stories – those about winning the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese, or about
winning the war itself – two things the rest of the movie make clear are not
actually happening. The film follows Joker as he goes to the front, and
climaxes in an incredibly tense standoff with a Vietcong Sniper.

That first 45 minutes is
brilliant – darkly hilarious, surreal, disturbing and extremely well-acted by
Ermey and D'Onofrio. Throughout his career, Kubrick would return to the idea of
the dehumanizing aspect of violence in general, and war in particular. This is
his theme in Full Metal Jacket – and by the end of those opening 45 minutes, it
has firmly established that in a brilliant way. Like Paths of Glory, Full Metal
Jacket is an anti-war movie. We will see horrific acts of violence in Full
Metal Jacket – but Kubrick sees this more as a product of the war, than the
personal responsibility of the people in general. Like D'Onofrio by the end of
that first segment, almost all of the grunts who have seen violence in the second
part talk in cold, methodical ways – almost like machines, not like people. If
the first half of the movie is about the gradual dehumanization of Pyle, the
second half does something similar for Joker – it takes him longer to get
there, but he still gets there.

The second half of the
movie is brilliantly well made in many ways – it has some great Steadicam shots
following the men on patrol, and disturbing scenes like when it shows a Marine
in a helicopter shooting everyone below them, for no real reason. The final
confrontation with the sniper is masterfully constructed, and incredibly
intense.

And yet, it feels like
something is lacking in that segment. This is supposed to be Vietnam, but was
shot in England – because Kubrick lived there, and didn’t want to get on a boat
or a plane. He shipped in palm trees to try and make England look more like
Vietnam – but it doesn’t quite work. It all feels a little phoney and false –
especially when compared to movies like Platoon (1986) or Apocalypse Now (1979)
or The Deer Hunter (1978). And worse than that, it feels slightly unnecessary –
I don’t think Kubrick adds much to his overall point that he hadn’t
established, and better, in the first 45 minutes.

The
biggest problem with that last 70 minutes of the film is not really anything in
it – it is well acted, directed and written, even if does feel a little fake at
times. The biggest problem is simply that is has the misfortune of following
the brilliant 45 minutes that opened the film. That part is as good as anything
you will see. The 70 minutes that follow is fine – but cannot help but be hurt
by following something brilliant.

About Me

I am an accountant, living in Brantford, ON - and although I am married and have beautiful daughter, I still find time to watch a lot of movies. This blog is mostly reviews of new movies - with other musing thrown in as well.